Well... It's a game.
Martial Law definitely suffers from its ridiculously short length, and a lack of purpose. I would say "identity crisis" as well, but I feel like the developers had an idea that just... didn't really communicate well. Quite literally, actually: This game's English translation is awful, and can definitely ruin some scenes for those who can't tolerate 3rd grade English in their serious dialogue.
But let's get into specifics, and cover one of the biggest sells of the game: Its historical narrative. I'm no historian, nor Polish, so I can't say how accurate the game really is, but I don't need to be to say that the game really felt like it didn't commit hard enough to its historical world building. It's not even equivalent to reading the Wikipedia article for "communism in Poland," it really just feels like somebody's spark notes on the subject from high school. Sure, the game spits out some cool facts, like that of a prominent store chain and the... card thing, but it doesn't cover any important events, any important figures, nobody's perspective at the time, or even contributing factors. The historical element of the game really just boils down to set-dressing.
However, the world itself doesn't doesn't have to be enthralling if the story on top of it is, so: What about the story? Well, there's a little bit more there, but it's flawed. The ending itself is definitely the peak of the game story-wise, as the final scene and its drama is genuinely engaging, and I do like how it humanizes both characters, but I dunno. At least personally: I require far more time to get invested in the world and characters, and a lot more motivation to get attached than just "is trying to be a father," and dropping all of this humanizing and sympathetic narrative only at the very end just weakens the impact. Perhaps a scene at the beginning where we get to see when the family initially split would go a long way towards not only putting the right questions in our head, but also making the main character immediately sympathetic, and with good reason. I dunno, I seem to be in the minority on this one though.
Lastly, one last minor criticisms: Considering most of the game is walking and talking (mutually exclusive), you'd think the game would have a strong atmosphere, but at least for me the game failed to hook me even there. The art is great, but I think if there were more sound-effects, more video-effects, more small touches of animation, and especially more optional bits of world-building like optional characters to interact with or newspapers and the like, I would have enjoyed my time just walking around more.
To finally conclude my thoughts: The game has some strong elements, namely its art, but it feels under-baked. What's there is fine, but there's nothing special about it other than its setting, and even that feels like it could be removed or changed to elsewhere and elsewhen, and it would stay mostly the same, which is NOT what you want from a historical narrative. Still, the game's free, so ultimately I can't be that mad at it.
Martial Law definitely suffers from its ridiculously short length, and a lack of purpose. I would say "identity crisis" as well, but I feel like the developers had an idea that just... didn't really communicate well. Quite literally, actually: This game's English translation is awful, and can definitely ruin some scenes for those who can't tolerate 3rd grade English in their serious dialogue.
But let's get into specifics, and cover one of the biggest sells of the game: Its historical narrative. I'm no historian, nor Polish, so I can't say how accurate the game really is, but I don't need to be to say that the game really felt like it didn't commit hard enough to its historical world building. It's not even equivalent to reading the Wikipedia article for "communism in Poland," it really just feels like somebody's spark notes on the subject from high school. Sure, the game spits out some cool facts, like that of a prominent store chain and the... card thing, but it doesn't cover any important events, any important figures, nobody's perspective at the time, or even contributing factors. The historical element of the game really just boils down to set-dressing.
However, the world itself doesn't doesn't have to be enthralling if the story on top of it is, so: What about the story? Well, there's a little bit more there, but it's flawed. The ending itself is definitely the peak of the game story-wise, as the final scene and its drama is genuinely engaging, and I do like how it humanizes both characters, but I dunno. At least personally: I require far more time to get invested in the world and characters, and a lot more motivation to get attached than just "is trying to be a father," and dropping all of this humanizing and sympathetic narrative only at the very end just weakens the impact. Perhaps a scene at the beginning where we get to see when the family initially split would go a long way towards not only putting the right questions in our head, but also making the main character immediately sympathetic, and with good reason. I dunno, I seem to be in the minority on this one though.
Lastly, one last minor criticisms: Considering most of the game is walking and talking (mutually exclusive), you'd think the game would have a strong atmosphere, but at least for me the game failed to hook me even there. The art is great, but I think if there were more sound-effects, more video-effects, more small touches of animation, and especially more optional bits of world-building like optional characters to interact with or newspapers and the like, I would have enjoyed my time just walking around more.
To finally conclude my thoughts: The game has some strong elements, namely its art, but it feels under-baked. What's there is fine, but there's nothing special about it other than its setting, and even that feels like it could be removed or changed to elsewhere and elsewhen, and it would stay mostly the same, which is NOT what you want from a historical narrative. Still, the game's free, so ultimately I can't be that mad at it.